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what do you get when you cross a yank with an old time samurai and add two kids to the mix? yeah, we don't know either. come join us on our journey and find out what international marriage is all about.

Time Travel

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

You know how we spent our weekend? On the phone with ANA getting tickets for Golden Week to...ITALY! Yes, we are heading back to Italy to meet up with my parents. I know...doesn't it sound hoity-toity? (Said with lockjaw, "Yes, daaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrlinnnnnnnngggg, we're going to take a trip across the pond to meet up with the kids." (BTW, for those of you not in the know, the "pond" is the Atlantic Ocean, according to my friends in the UK.)

Actually, my parents were planning to visit Japan after a five-year hiatus but because both of my brothers are planning to come out this year, they proposed to meet us somewhere else...and Italy was shortlisted!

We've met up in different places around the world before. A few years ago we met up in Paris and another time in Madrid. Last year, I even dragged my large adorable butt down to Brisbane to meet up with my sister and her family who came in from Michigan. We are like the traveling von Trapps, except without the singing ability.

E7 and I have been to Italy already (Rome, Venice, Capri, Milan) but he so desperately wanted to go to Florence that I took out my magic wand and bestowed upon him unlimited phone service so that he could contact all the travel agencies to book us on a flight. So we are going to Florence and Venice (yes, again).

We're going to Venice again because of me. The last time we went, I teared up when the water taxi went around the bend and I caught my first glimpse of the city bathed in the last light of the day. If you have never been there, I can't emphasize enough how you should run and max out your credit card go as soon as you can.

Now that my family has progressed from meeting only in the U.S. or Japan, I'm all for going back stateside and meeting up in Hawaii. I must be the only American abroad who has never been to Hawaii.**

** I also have never been to the west coast, except in transit. I am the quintessential New Yorker. Check out a cover of The New Yorker from many years past:

I heard that the new Kitakyushu airport will have chartered flights to Hawaii. This is excellent, especially since JAL stopped their direct flights to Hawaii from Fukuoka (and had one of their engines explode in mid-air...Right.On.Television. You can't pay for PR like that.)

Well she sneaks around the world from Kiev to CarolinaShe's a sticky-fingered filcher from Berlin down to BelizeShe'll take you for a ride on a slow boat to ChinaTell me, where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? Steal their Seoul in South Korea, make Antarctica cry 'Uncle,'From the Red Sea to Greenland they'll be singing the bluesWell, they never Arkansas her steal the Mekong from the jungleTell me, where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?She goes from Nashville to Norway, Bonaire to Zimbabwe,Chicago to Czechoslovakia and back!Well, she'll ransack Pakistan and run a scam in Scandinavia,Then she'll stick 'em up Down Under and go pick-pocket PerthShe put the Miss in misdemeanor when she stole the beans from LimaTell me, where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?Oh, tell me, where in the world is...tell me, where can she be?Botswana to Thailand, Milan via Amsterdam, Mali to Bali, Ohio, Oahu!Well she glides around the globe, and she'll flim-flam every nationShe's a double-dealing diva with a taste for thieveryHer itinerary's loaded up with moving violationsTell me, where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?